BY MUSA SHUBOMI TIMILEYIN
The Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation (FMWRS) has been urged to implement the National Roadmap to Hand Hygiene for All (HH4A) (2021-2025).
In a press statement issued in the spirit of World Hand Hygiene Day (WHHD), Ms. Ganiyat Afolayan, Communications Officer, Mangrove & Partners Limited (MPL), stated that the HH4A provides guidance on how to address hand hygiene in health facilities and amongst caregivers.
Afolayan submitted that WHHD 2024, observed on Sunday, May 5, allows the organisation to remind Nigerians of the critical and lifesaving importance of hand washing. According to her, handwashing prevents up to 50% of avoidable infections acquired during healthcare delivery, including those affecting the health workforce.
“Handwashing also reduces the number of people who get sick from infectious diarrhoea by 23-40%, reduces diarrhoea illnesses in people with weakened immune systems by 58%, and the number of school absenteeism by over 50%.
The theme for the WHHD 2024 is “Save Lives: Clean Your Hands”, while the campaign focuses on: “Promoting knowledge and capacity building of health and care workers through innovative and impactful training and education, on infection prevention and control, including hand hygiene”.
Afolayan added: “The 2024 celebration is significant because it provides us with a unique opportunity, as media practitioners and WASH experts, to raise awareness and sensitise the public on the importance of hand hygiene, and continuous education as well as to remind the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation (FMWRS) of need to implement the National Roadmap to Hand Hygiene for All (2021-2025), which provides guidance on how to address hand hygiene in health facilities and amongst caregivers.”
Nigeria developed a road map to hand hygiene for all in the year 2021. However, since its launch on September 6, 2022, and one year to its ending date, the document has been unavailable to the public and its dissemination and implementation have been stalled by a lack of funding for hygiene promotion. According to the road map document, Nigeria aims to invest $2.5 billion over five years to achieve hand hygiene for all by 2025, with government funding playing a significant role.
The Nigeria Road-map to Hand Hygiene for All (2021-2025), outlines a three-phased approach:
- Response: Addressing immediate COVID-19 response needs.
- Rebuild: Rebuilding hand hygiene systems.
- Re-imagine and Sustain: Establishing a long-term hand hygiene culture.
It identifies three key components, which include: Political Leadership for improved budget allocation, programme visibility, and advocacy; Enabling Environment to provide policies, technical capacity, and participatory planning; and increasing Demand for behaviour change, funding, and incentives, and Supply for Demand of through market development, product innovation, and logistics.
“In line with aforementioned, this is a call for action to the federal government to implement and encourage the domestication of the National Hand Hygiene for All (2021-2025) Roadmap across all states of the federation.”
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), hand hygiene is not a luxury. The World HHD Campaign gives WHO an opportunity to talk to a worldwide audience. Infection prevention and control (IPC), which includes hand hygiene, is fundamental to safe and effective healthcare systems. Hand hygiene is relevant to all health workers, patients, and their families at every single healthcare encounter. It contributes to quality universal health coverage, meeting Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.8 and strongly supports the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and the health sector global antimicrobial resistance (AMR) agendas.
Hence, the WHHD 2024 is designed to strengthen learning approaches to enable the implementation of innovative and effective training, empower health and care workers, and improve hand hygiene and IPC at the point of care with enhanced knowledge, skills and behaviours.
In Nigeria, the day is observed as part of the broader efforts to improve public health and prevent the spread of diseases. Only 17% of households in Nigeria have access to basic hygiene services. Although the knowledge of critical handwashing times is high (99%), amongst Nigerians, proper handwashing demonstration is at 8%. Hygiene facilities are inadequate, with 30% of health facilities having basic handwashing services, and 35% of schools providing basic handwashing services
